Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Wit and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guest actress, writer, filmmaker, director. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: add all those titles. I'm sorry. Ashley Versa is in
Speaker 1: the building.
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello, how are you doing? I'm good?
Speaker 1: How are you good? I'm hungry? Really yeah, okay, even
Speaker 1: though I did have like a bagel with lockspread.
Speaker 2: You're hungry.
Speaker 1: That was earlier. That was earlier.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1: But yeah, semi hungry. Well, you had virtually one of
Speaker 1: the cheapest dishes on the show, so it was very easy.
Speaker 1: It was just like walk in, walk out. Why don't
Speaker 1: you tell our listeners and our audience what are you
Speaker 1: gonna have me eating today?
Speaker 2: I'm going to be having you eat some eggs.
Speaker 1: Eggs, plain and simple like eggs, salt, and pepper. And
Speaker 1: you said olive oil, which you know we're gonna find
Speaker 1: out what it's like to eat eggs and olive oil today.
Speaker 1: You never did it. I don't think I've ever done it.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is good. And the pepper is optional.
Speaker 1: The pepper is optional? Sure, okay, she didn't even ask
Speaker 1: for Lorry's guys, No start passing judgment eggs, you know what,
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, there are some black folks out
Speaker 1: there that have never seen regular salt. I truly believe this.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of respect for Lorry's, though, so
Speaker 2: I'm here for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, why don't you get in the kitchen start
Speaker 1: cooking these eggs. What kind of eggs are you gonna
Speaker 1: make today?
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna make scrambled eggs.
Speaker 1: Scrambled you can't miss it up?
Speaker 2: Good? You can, but you can't.
Speaker 1: We don't judge these eggs. Now.
Speaker 2: How do you like your eggs?
Speaker 1: I like them over medium?
Speaker 2: Oh interesting? Okay, But I eat eggs.
Speaker 1: Any which hard? No? I I to running sometimes it
Speaker 1: depends what if I want a gooy mish a guy.
Speaker 1: You know, if we got ash browns, do it running.
Speaker 1: You know, if it's just like some sausage and eggs,
Speaker 1: do it hard.
Speaker 2: You know we're gonna make some eggs. That's gonna be exciting.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, little nervous.
Speaker 1: This simple dish. So I have a saying, the broker
Speaker 1: the dish, the better the story. Oh okay. Now being
Speaker 1: an actress, yeah, you know, give us some insight that
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I'm sure it can't be.
Speaker 2: You got it like it's getting, it's getting. It's the
Speaker 2: stress is coming to me now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just turned it off.
Speaker 2: I know, I know later to go off. It needs
Speaker 2: to go off. I was like, it's too much stress.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna start slow. So we're cracking eggs. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna just bang it on the counter, go for it.
Speaker 2: Do we need a lesson in that? I don't think so.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I've heard things though. People drop eggs. They drop them
Speaker 2: on the counter to crack them perfectly.
Speaker 1: Really, Yeah, from like a low height like.
Speaker 2: They do that. Let's see and apparently it cracks nice. Really,
Speaker 2: it's pretty nice. That's pretty nice.
Speaker 1: I just like to do a nice crack, real hard
Speaker 1: on the side of the pot of.
Speaker 2: The Oh, you just like to It's that feels like
Speaker 2: so like an emotional way of picking.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: You know, we don't have a rag, but I'll just
Speaker 2: see a napkin.
Speaker 1: Yeah you need a napkin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a napkin and white my hands off. So
Speaker 2: this is part of the broken aspect, is getting all
Speaker 2: the you're hilarious, Yeah, it's it might be breaking.
Speaker 1: These eggs are like a dollar in egg.
Speaker 2: I'm cooking for eggs. We're cooking all the eggs. It's protein,
Speaker 2: it's proteins, fats, that's a whole meal.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, actually living on how much How
Speaker 1: much was the eggs back in the.
Speaker 2: Day, I don't know, but they were super cheap because
Speaker 2: I have a fond memory of the giant cart from
Speaker 2: Costco of white eggs, white eggs.
Speaker 1: Can you tell our listeners that little joke you made
Speaker 1: about the brown eggs versus the white?
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I told you it was so funny, she said. She
Speaker 1: had said, so like I forbid we eat a white
Speaker 1: egg or so something like that. Just so true because
Speaker 1: when Moore shopping, I said, there's white eggs and brown
Speaker 1: eggs just gonna look like real cheap eggs.
Speaker 2: Everybody's freaking out about the eggs. It's getting real like
Speaker 2: the soy and the eggs it's corn. You know. I
Speaker 2: emailed some farms.
Speaker 1: No, you did it, I did.
Speaker 2: I emailed some farms because I was really curious about
Speaker 2: this because everybody really started freaking out about the eggs.
Speaker 2: So I was like, okay, what's up. We want eggs
Speaker 2: with no soy with no corn. So I emailed some
Speaker 2: farms and the farm said, listen, we do our best,
Speaker 2: but it's really impossible to our next to impossible to
Speaker 2: grow what we need or not grow I mean their eggs.
Speaker 2: I guess they're being birth or whatever whatever, who knows
Speaker 2: what that's called. But to get what we need, get
Speaker 2: the amount that we need, it's impossible to just feed
Speaker 2: them things that don't include any corn or soy. So
Speaker 2: they do do some corn and soy substitutions. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: emo two farms. They were so nice and they responded
Speaker 2: some eggs okay, I thought about it. So there's one
Speaker 2: in San Diego, but I was just too far to
Speaker 2: drive from LA.
Speaker 1: I have a girlfriend that goes online and she purchases
Speaker 1: her eggs directly from the farms. And if you thought
Speaker 1: seven dollars a carton or ten dollars a car was expensive,
Speaker 1: good lord, she's spending like fifteen twenty dollars a carton. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's like, but they real I'm like, you might as
Speaker 1: well just get some chickens for that. You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's sad because eggs used to be really affordable,
Speaker 2: and I think you're just.
Speaker 1: Not now what are you gonna do if? Like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess hopefully you never have to go back in
Speaker 1: time to the eggs. But could you imagine being overoil
Speaker 1: broke right now? And then you're like, damn, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna eat?
Speaker 2: Who would you eat for breakfast? What do you do?
Speaker 1: What would I do with my daughter? Every day?
Speaker 2: What do you do? Cru But what kind of cereal?
Speaker 1: The well we buy the expensive on name brand fruity
Speaker 1: pebbles and all that, but a good we don't buy
Speaker 1: her to knockoffs.
Speaker 2: The goods, the good, fun tasting cereal.
Speaker 1: When you grow up off the knockoffs, you never ever
Speaker 1: ever want to go back. That's fair, you know. So
Speaker 1: all right, take me back to what was going on
Speaker 1: in this I need to survive on.
Speaker 2: Eggs, you know. I don't know. I think I have
Speaker 2: just general fun memories of breakfast. I grew up in
Speaker 2: a house where my dad used to make breakfast for
Speaker 2: us on like Saturday mornings. So he'd make pancakes, apples,
Speaker 2: cinnamon like apples, like with cinnamon and sugar, like a whole,
Speaker 2: like little compount kind of thing. He would do real apples,
Speaker 2: yeahh he like slice them and everything. Yeah, in the morning.
Speaker 2: I would just be like, he'd be like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but what do you put them into pancakes?
Speaker 2: No, so you put them on top, so like a
Speaker 2: whole separate thing. He'd make like the apples and cinnamon
Speaker 2: and sugar and make a whole thing. So you have
Speaker 2: like pancakes, apples, bacon, and then we'd have eggs.
Speaker 1: And you came on this show and presented us with
Speaker 1: just eggs. Got it. We had to live the full
Speaker 1: broke experience. We couldn't live the daddy experience.
Speaker 2: My parents weren't broke, okay, clearly, not clearly.
Speaker 1: So you come from a two parent house.
Speaker 2: I come from a two parent household where your daddy
Speaker 2: makes good breakfast. My daddy is the cook in the house.
Speaker 1: Oh he's the cook.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the cook in the household.
Speaker 1: How can we only cooked on the weekends the.
Speaker 2: No, No, this is just like our weekend thing. So
Speaker 2: Saturday mornings when I was a kid, he would make
Speaker 2: like a fool like breakfast, like a full breakfast for us,
Speaker 2: and we'd all like go downstairs and have breakfast, and
Speaker 2: he'd like call up to us when breakfast was ready,
Speaker 2: and then we'd go downstairs.
Speaker 1: For breakfast and what was your mama doing during this sleeping?
Speaker 2: Mom My mom worked really hard. They both worked really hard,
Speaker 2: but she I think they had a really good I
Speaker 2: think they had a really good balance in terms of like.
Speaker 1: Like there was never a discussion about it, was just
Speaker 1: like no.
Speaker 2: Because I think, you know, my mom did like a
Speaker 2: lot of like the pickups school, the school pickups and
Speaker 2: like the after school activities because my dad couldn't do
Speaker 2: it because of his job. And so I think like
Speaker 2: also like cooking was like a way for him to
Speaker 2: express his love for us too. So yeah, that's like
Speaker 2: she'd be sleeping, we'd all he'd be like, breakfast is ready,
Speaker 2: and we'd all like get up and go downstairs. It's
Speaker 2: important you go downstairs right away though.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was Anyone who cooks feels that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, dinner's ready, it's ready two minutes arrive.
Speaker 1: Alrive, wash the hands, and it comes. Y. I can't
Speaker 1: stand when I cook something and someone take thirty minutes
Speaker 1: to get up off the couch, Like I just just mad.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes I'm saying I'm not okay with it.
Speaker 1: So all right, so what's going on during this egg's ear?
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's like my beginner of that. And then
Speaker 2: I think, honestly, I think probably when I first moved
Speaker 2: back to Los Angeles, this is before I decided I
Speaker 2: wanted to be an actor. I moved to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I got a job at Kaiser Permanente, and I didn't
Speaker 2: have any money.
Speaker 1: What were you doing at Kaiser?
Speaker 2: I worked in medical education at Kaiser Permanente on the
Speaker 2: Kaiser on sunset, and I had no money, so I
Speaker 2: used to buy I used to bit buy the soup
Speaker 2: from the cafeteria with bread because it was super cheap,
Speaker 2: like the I know it was cafeteria food, but whatever,
Speaker 2: it was super cheap and and yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: Eat evener even with a day job.
Speaker 2: You were still broke, Yeah, I mean I was. I
Speaker 2: was like young, and I was like trying to figure
Speaker 2: it out, and and I didn't. I mean, I moved here,
Speaker 2: so I didn't have money, like you know, when you first,
Speaker 2: especially when you first get a job, you don't have
Speaker 2: any money, Like you're like, can you please, just like,
Speaker 2: can I get advance on the paycheck? Like that would
Speaker 2: have been really great to get an advance of the paycheck.
Speaker 1: I would love to see you do an actual ask
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that would have been I mean I did
Speaker 2: ask for some things later and they were like maybe
Speaker 2: not but and so that's I think that's probably like
Speaker 2: when this really happened because I used to I used
Speaker 2: to have an ex for breakfast.
Speaker 1: And during this stay job, you said you didn't know
Speaker 1: you were going to be an access to No.
Speaker 2: I did not. I was still trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what I wanted to do. I went to college, I did,
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: What did you go to college for?
Speaker 2: I don't know what I went to college for? But
Speaker 2: I did major in psychology. Why I went to college
Speaker 2: is the strong There's so many questions, I guess because
Speaker 2: you're supposed.
Speaker 1: To did you did you complete?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, I gratus.
Speaker 1: Did you do it to make your parents happy?
Speaker 2: No? I mean I think I always knew I would
Speaker 2: go to college, but I was. I was so I
Speaker 2: had been in the arts since from a very young age,
Speaker 2: and I'm turn this off and I the artist is
Speaker 2: really strange and challenging in a different way, and so
Speaker 2: I think it was really hard to figure out where
Speaker 2: I was gonna go. I was a musician for a
Speaker 2: very long time, so what kind of musician violinist.
Speaker 1: You're a violinist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for a really long time.
Speaker 1: Damn, I wish I would have done that.
Speaker 2: Okay, I think these eggs are done. Okay, are you
Speaker 2: having violent?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm judging your eggs.
Speaker 2: Eggs.
Speaker 1: She cooked them. She was like folding.
Speaker 2: You're judging my eggs.
Speaker 1: She was folding. I don't know if the inside is
Speaker 1: gonna even be cooked.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a little runny. You said you like
Speaker 2: it a little creamy.
Speaker 1: I've never had you.
Speaker 2: We see do you see these? No? You can see
Speaker 2: them now.
Speaker 1: We judging a cooking. Do you cook now?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Cooking?
Speaker 2: Okay, I really can cook.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna She didn't put salt or pepper.
Speaker 2: No, because you can't taste it if you put it
Speaker 2: in that while you're cooking it. So you put it
Speaker 2: in afterwards and you can do it on your own.
Speaker 2: How very much you like? Eggs are done?
Speaker 1: I'm actually did you eat?
Speaker 2: I had some turkey? Turkey and a baby bell.
Speaker 1: A baby bell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know me, those little cheese things. Yeah? Oh
Speaker 2: my god, are you on an actress type diet? No? No,
Speaker 2: I was just like pulling my life together this morning.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do a taste test. I added salt
Speaker 1: and pepper. She just added salt. Guys, really good action.
Speaker 2: Thanks. I'd be okay if you didn't like them. I've
Speaker 2: never actually had fluffy eggs like this. You know that's
Speaker 2: not this fluffy. I will say, I think butter would
Speaker 2: be better because it adds more to the flavor, as
Speaker 2: you know, because you cooked with so much butter, which
Speaker 2: is amazing. But I do think the technique is the fluffy.
Speaker 1: Do you know what's crazy is that I always think
Speaker 1: you have to like overcook the eggs. This is pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'm actually impressed with your I was judging. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh lord, I'm not eating these. Oh one, don't. I'm
Speaker 1: in a breakfast at your house. This is the most
Speaker 1: fluffiest restaurant style scrambled eggs I've had. Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oops, that's makes stuck.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So okay. So you're at g Eyser, you're working.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Are you doing roommates?
Speaker 2: No? So okay, okay. Yes. So I had a friend
Speaker 2: of mine who let me live in her living room.
Speaker 1: I love LA. When I first moved there, I did
Speaker 1: the same thing. I was living in someone's squatting in
Speaker 1: the living room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was living there. She had like a twin
Speaker 2: size bed in the living room. Yeah, I got a bed.
Speaker 1: I got a bed.
Speaker 2: She had a twin saxes bed in living room. And
Speaker 2: she let me live there for like a while, Like
Speaker 2: she didn't really actually like tell me I had to leave.
Speaker 2: But eventually I was in traffic coming home from Hollywood
Speaker 2: to Westchester and it was Christmas time and it took
Speaker 2: me like two hours to get home, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I have to move.
Speaker 1: Where in LA?
Speaker 2: Did she live Westchester by the airport. It shouldn't have
Speaker 2: taken it long, but it was Christmas time, and you know,
Speaker 2: especially like at this this is pre pandemic. So like
Speaker 2: the traffic was just like remarkable.
Speaker 1: Did you drive during the pandemic? Wasn't it nice? So
Speaker 1: like so everywhere where'd you go?
Speaker 2: I was in New York at first, and then I
Speaker 2: was in I lived in New York for a one time,
Speaker 2: and then I was in Hollywood, No, no, New York.
Speaker 2: I was in New Orleans, and then I was in
Speaker 2: South Carolina and then and then La.
Speaker 1: All during the pandemic. I know New York. I had
Speaker 1: met like people were terrified in New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was rough.
Speaker 1: They were like, there's dead buddies. It was not. They'd
Speaker 1: be like pizza, drop it and drop it by the door,
Speaker 1: you know. I like the trackway.
Speaker 2: We did the clapping at seven o'clock, like you go
Speaker 2: to the window and you clap to feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: like community and in unity. It was bad. It was
Speaker 2: such a bad time. It was so bad. I had
Speaker 2: COVID early on. My husband and I both had COVID
Speaker 2: at the beginning. Dang, yeah, it was not people were
Speaker 2: being in the afterwards. My friends were like, we we
Speaker 2: didn't want to tell you how bad you guys look.
Speaker 2: We were deeply concerned. It was hard. It was so hard.
Speaker 1: You know what's fucked is that if you got COVID,
Speaker 1: you had to live in like quarantine, live.
Speaker 2: In a New York SIDS apartment. I didn't know how
Speaker 2: small my apartment was until I moved to Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: but it was incredibly small. I found myself standing on
Speaker 2: like the fake fire escape balcony, like yelling to people.
Speaker 2: I didn't know, just to say hi to people. I
Speaker 2: just really like I need I'm not an extrovert, but
Speaker 2: I really needed some alternate human.
Speaker 1: All right. So going back to Kaiser. You're chilling on
Speaker 1: this twin match tw twin bed in this living room.
Speaker 1: You're working a day job. I'm guessing you're making probably
Speaker 1: like ten dollars an hour at this point because you're
Speaker 1: struggling still.
Speaker 2: No, I made I made pretty good money. I will
Speaker 2: say that it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: What were you spending your money on?
Speaker 2: I mean I literally know, Okay, when I was when
Speaker 2: I was first on the twin I was like just
Speaker 2: like saving money to put money together. So so like
Speaker 2: maybe I spent my probably you know, actually I think
Speaker 2: I spent a lot of money on food, like ordering out.
Speaker 2: I think I ordered out a lot.
Speaker 1: And then in addition to your soup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was real. I really ate that soup.
Speaker 2: And then maybe six months later, I think, or something
Speaker 2: like that is when Christmas came, and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to move, and then I had money to
Speaker 2: go and be like okay, great, I'm going to move
Speaker 2: into my own apartment. And I think that's when real
Speaker 2: struggle entered. I'm trying to remember the timeline. No, I
Speaker 2: had a roommate. Oh my god, forgot about that. So
Speaker 2: I had a roommate. I went and moved into another
Speaker 2: apartment with a roommate. And then that was that was
Speaker 2: so strange. But then around that timeframe is when I
Speaker 2: was like I wanted to pursue I wanted to become
Speaker 2: an actor on that time and what started that, I
Speaker 2: was taking classes that you say like extension, and I
Speaker 2: was really like interested in communication because I was just
Speaker 2: it's such a nightmare when you're trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what you want to do and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: there's so many outside voices I think, just throughout your
Speaker 2: whole life about what you're going to do career wise.
Speaker 2: And this woman came in there. I saw her like
Speaker 2: a month ago. Actually, this woman came in there who
Speaker 2: is an actress, and it was like a mock interview
Speaker 2: that they were trying to teach us, and she just
Speaker 2: like told a little bit of her story and like
Speaker 2: I don't know, the inside of my body just like
Speaker 2: caught fire, and I was like, oh my god, I
Speaker 2: gotta go talk to her. I have to go talk
Speaker 2: to her. So like she left the class and I
Speaker 2: like ran after her and I was like, hey, can
Speaker 2: you tell me like how to do what you're doing?
Speaker 2: Like what do I do? And that was kind of
Speaker 2: the real like beginning of like that of me taking
Speaker 2: action towards that, and then like the pursuit of acting
Speaker 2: is incredibly expensive, so it's like you're taking classes, you
Speaker 2: get headshots, and you're just kind of trying to figure
Speaker 2: the whole thing out. So I think, like I wasn't
Speaker 2: making a lot of money, So yeah, I think that's
Speaker 2: kind of where it was going a bit. Eventually. Eventually,
Speaker 2: like a lot of my money that was making was
Speaker 2: going to like me taking acting classes and that sort
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 1: And did you tell your family right away that that's
Speaker 1: what you were going to pursue.
Speaker 2: So I decided that I was going to pursue that,
Speaker 2: and then I took I signed up for an intro
Speaker 2: to Acting class. I took the class. The last class,
Speaker 2: we did that scene from Love and Basketball where it's
Speaker 2: Annihilathan and Alfre Witter in the kitchen when she's when
Speaker 2: she's an adult, and there was a casting director in
Speaker 2: there from CBS who I don't I have no idea
Speaker 2: who that man is, but he I did the scene.
Speaker 2: We did the scene with my scene partner, and he
Speaker 2: was like, she was a seasoned, older black actress and
Speaker 2: she was amazing. And he was like, have you acted before?
Speaker 2: And I was like no, and he was like, so
Speaker 2: it was your first time doing this thing? And I
Speaker 2: was like yeah, and he was like okay, and you
Speaker 2: like it? And I was like yeah, and he was
Speaker 2: like I'm here, aren't I And it was like okay,
Speaker 2: keep doing it. Oh, And I was like okay. And
Speaker 2: then I left class and I called my mom.
Speaker 1: Oh and that's when you told me.
Speaker 2: That's when I told my mom, Yeah, okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So then what does the next year look like for you?
Speaker 1: Is it all roses and tulips? No?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think because I had a job, I
Speaker 2: was a little fortunate in that regard that I didn't
Speaker 2: feel I didn't feel like deeply destitute. But I think
Speaker 2: it was incredibly challenging because I think my my my
Speaker 2: want to pursue acting was something that was always it
Speaker 2: was always there my whole life. But then over the
Speaker 2: next year it just really I keep saying this, but
Speaker 2: it really caught fire. And so I ended up like
Speaker 2: taking classes out of conservatory, you know, so then that's
Speaker 2: a whole thing, and then you then I started to
Speaker 2: meet like other actors and like found myself in this
Speaker 2: community where I felt like, oh my god, I belong here,
Speaker 2: like I just belong. And I think a lot of
Speaker 2: my life I didn't feel like that. And then learning
Speaker 2: so much about the craft and just learning to and
Speaker 2: then falling in love with it because I think that's
Speaker 2: an important part. And then I think once that happened,
Speaker 2: it was really hard to have my job. It was
Speaker 2: really hard to.
Speaker 1: Have my dayta it sounds like you're about to quit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so did you? Well, So what happened was I
Speaker 2: got to this place where I met my Actually it's
Speaker 2: so crazy, he's like currently my acting coach. Where I
Speaker 2: met him and I went to him for some advice
Speaker 2: and I was like, you know, I'm really interested in
Speaker 2: going to New York and like doing like the full
Speaker 2: on conservatory program and like what do you think? And
Speaker 2: we had like a conversation about it, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I think I think this is the right
Speaker 2: step for you based on X, Y and Z and
Speaker 2: knowing me and my work at that moment in time.
Speaker 2: And so I like was auditioning lightly, right, So I've
Speaker 2: done like these weird little random things and then I
Speaker 2: got this audition to do a show Buddy the Buddy
Speaker 2: Holly Story, which is kind of like a musical presentation show,
Speaker 2: and you needed they needed someone who could act, sing
Speaker 2: and dance.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I was gonna say, luckily you have that
Speaker 1: musician background and play the violin is okay.
Speaker 2: So I was like, all right. So I had to
Speaker 2: do three tapes for my audition. I think I had
Speaker 2: to sing, I had to play the violin, and then
Speaker 2: I had to do a scene I think in my audition.
Speaker 2: So I sent it in and I, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: still working at Kaiser in my cubicle and crying in
Speaker 2: the whole way. And then I booked it and it
Speaker 2: was I was like, holy shit, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: But it was in New York.
Speaker 2: It was in Rock Island, Illinois.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, how long would you have to be there?
Speaker 2: For a couple of months?
Speaker 1: Gosh, I can only imagine how great that feeling was
Speaker 1: also probably surrounded by oh, how am I going to
Speaker 1: do this?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah? Yeah, oh for sure? And so I was
Speaker 2: like okay, And I think I told my mom and
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm just going to ask them. She
Speaker 2: was like, just ask them if they'll give you like
Speaker 2: a leave, like a leave of like a I don't know,
Speaker 2: like a leave of asking or something like that, right
Speaker 2: when I was like, okay, cool. So at the same
Speaker 2: time I'm there, I was also so I interviewed for
Speaker 2: this really this job at Kaiser to be the internal
Speaker 2: medicine actually just as residency coordinator, which is which is
Speaker 2: a big job. It's a big job because it's heavily
Speaker 2: regulated in terms of like what you need to make
Speaker 2: sure happens, and it's really about like the residence and
Speaker 2: then going through their residency program. And I'm sure I
Speaker 2: paid more, right, Yes, it paid more money, and it
Speaker 2: was a big job. And so I interviewed for the job.
Speaker 2: I got the job, and then I also got it
Speaker 2: for internal medicine, which was the hardest and the biggest
Speaker 2: one to do, and like you know high like you know,
Speaker 2: high value or whatever, right, And I.
Speaker 1: Got the job before you got the audition.
Speaker 2: I think I got the job. It all happened kind
Speaker 2: of at the same time. So I got the job,
Speaker 2: and so then and I guess so I like booked
Speaker 2: it and I got the job, right, And so let's
Speaker 2: say like Friday, I got the job and I was like, okay, shit,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can curse you okay. So
Speaker 2: I got the job and then I like took the
Speaker 2: weekend and then I came to work on Monday, and
Speaker 2: then I went to the director and I was like, hey,
Speaker 2: I can't take this job.
Speaker 1: You can't thought you were going to do a little stall. No.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't. I can't teach this job
Speaker 2: because I don't want to do this. I just really
Speaker 2: want to be an actor. And so anyway, like I
Speaker 2: asked them for a leave and they were like, we'll
Speaker 2: think about it, give us a minute, and then I
Speaker 2: came to work. This was a little time after I
Speaker 2: came to work, and then they were like okay. They
Speaker 2: pulled me into a meeting and they were like, listen,
Speaker 2: we're not going to give you the leave and I
Speaker 2: said okay, and they were like okay, well what are
Speaker 2: you going to do? And I was like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is my two week notice.
Speaker 1: Did you do it like that too?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh surprise bitch.
Speaker 2: As I'm out, probably I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: my two weeks.
Speaker 1: Not They probably thought they were going to like game
Speaker 1: check you and then you gain.
Speaker 2: I do think it was a little bit like that.
Speaker 2: I think it was a bit much like and now
Speaker 2: that I'm remembering more acurate. These things happened over a
Speaker 2: period of months, so I so I got like the
Speaker 2: job offer was first, and then there was some months
Speaker 2: in between that, and then this happened, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they really thought that I was going to say, Okay, hey,
Speaker 2: I won't go, and I was like, no, no, like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go one hundred percent. Yeah, And that was
Speaker 2: really like the kickoff.
Speaker 1: I want to know, like, did you you already prepared
Speaker 1: for the possibility of walking obviously? Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think I was just like was always that person
Speaker 2: a bit in a good way.
Speaker 1: I love your personality though, like, oh yeah, what's my
Speaker 1: I'm out?
Speaker 2: Simple?
Speaker 1: So you go to New York, well Rochester, Rocky, Illinois.
Speaker 1: Sorry sorry no, I So you go over there and
Speaker 1: you're doing this and at some point, do you what
Speaker 1: are the motions saying to you? I mean, you risked
Speaker 1: a lot to be there, and did you pack up
Speaker 1: your apartment or you.
Speaker 2: Just oh yeah. So I sublet my apartment to this writer,
Speaker 2: a TV writer. I sublet my apartment. I sold like
Speaker 2: my TV and some of the stuff in it to him,
Speaker 2: and then I went to my parents' house for because
Speaker 2: it was around Christmas time. I went to my parents'
Speaker 2: house around Chrismas time and they I was there. I
Speaker 2: did Christmas, and then January like first or something. I
Speaker 2: took a plane. They had a ticket, so I took
Speaker 2: a plane to Illinois.
Speaker 1: And they put you up and everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they put us up all in the house and
Speaker 2: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it was the paid good No, no, but
Speaker 2: it was it was fine for what it was like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: my you know, my job was being here and just
Speaker 2: like doing this show. It was dinner theater. This theater
Speaker 2: called I think it's called circa circa twenty one. I
Speaker 2: think it's what it's called dinner theater type of thing.
Speaker 2: It's just such a really great place to like have
Speaker 2: that introduction for me, like someone like me who was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know what this is.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I ask about the pay and
Speaker 1: all that is because you walked away from oh money, yeah,
Speaker 1: stability right, oh yeah, and then you close down your apartment. Yes,
Speaker 1: so after wraps and top of little pay, what's your
Speaker 1: next play?
Speaker 2: I took my little four one care I took it.
Speaker 1: I'm gambling at all I did. I gambled it all
Speaker 1: on this career. I took it k the tour wraps.
Speaker 1: Then what I moved to New York? Then you moved
Speaker 1: to Oh you up the anti suicide she said. So
Speaker 1: she said, Oh if I thought La was hard, because
Speaker 1: no disrespect to La, but New York has got to
Speaker 1: be ten times harder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It's fair. Everyone there lives in a cracker box. I
Speaker 1: make jokes all the time. You can't really move to
Speaker 1: New York broke because like, there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: people that are gonna put you up for a long
Speaker 1: period of time. No, not in a place that you
Speaker 1: could touch the wall.
Speaker 2: Yes, so my I have. I had a lot of
Speaker 2: family who lived in New York at the time. My
Speaker 2: Ti La Grain lived in New York. I did not
Speaker 2: even recall meeting her, but my my mom called and
Speaker 2: I was like. She was like, you can live your
Speaker 2: tea And I was like, okay, great, And so I
Speaker 2: talked to her and she was like, okay, this is
Speaker 2: what you do when you get in a taxi. You
Speaker 2: tell them to go here, don't let them trick you,
Speaker 2: and you come here and then you're good. And I
Speaker 2: walked in her house with my two giant suitcases, and
Speaker 2: she was like, Hi, this is your room.
Speaker 1: That's your mom's sister.
Speaker 2: No, it's my mom cousin. So my I'm my part
Speaker 2: of my family's frum indoors and so a lot of
Speaker 2: that part of my family lived and grew up in
Speaker 2: New York. So it is my like, my mom's probably
Speaker 2: like second or second cousin, I think, or something like that.
Speaker 1: Because you said ta, I thought that meant like she's
Speaker 1: she's it is she's she's at that point in that
Speaker 1: age difference, she's she's my aunt.
Speaker 2: Oh good god, yeah, like respect, that's funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so surprised she's solely solely supportive, like.
Speaker 2: She's yeah, she she passed away like during COVID but
Speaker 2: she sorry, I'm going to pull myself together.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 2: But she incredibly supportive, Like I couldn't have done any
Speaker 2: of it without her.
Speaker 1: Wow, how long did you get to stay with her?
Speaker 2: I stayed with her probably for like two years something
Speaker 2: like that, around probably around two years. I think that
Speaker 2: feels like like a right number. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then during this whole New York trial, you're doing
Speaker 1: the conservative.
Speaker 2: Ships in the territory. Yeah, I'm doing the like again, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know, I'm fine. Sorry, I don't haven't pulled to
Speaker 2: this story.
Speaker 1: No. Like, yeah, so during the two years you're you're
Speaker 1: pursuing the conservative.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in the conservatory program, which is like super rigorous.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what that is exactly?
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's like and it's it's it's an alternative
Speaker 2: to grad school essentially, and basically, so if you're doing
Speaker 2: like the whole shebang, you probably are doing like and
Speaker 2: your general like acting class and whatever that method is
Speaker 2: that's taught at that conservatory, and then you're doing probably
Speaker 2: a movement, voice speech, Shakespeare, probably script analysis, theater history,
Speaker 2: film history, those kinds of things. It is. That's why
Speaker 2: it's really is like the conservatory word is like really
Speaker 2: perfect because it's it's a heavily concentrated thing that you're doing.
Speaker 2: It runs just like a school year runs, so you
Speaker 2: have like the summers off and then in the summers
Speaker 2: if you want to do something you can. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: It was hard after going through a conservatory. Do you
Speaker 1: look at actors that say, I didn't do acting class
Speaker 1: and I just did it a do you look at
Speaker 1: them a little different?
Speaker 2: No? No, I think I think maybe you could or
Speaker 2: I could have right after, but at this point, no, like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this job is so hard. The career
Speaker 2: is just so hard. And I think if you find
Speaker 2: it however, it comes to you. You know, there's people
Speaker 2: who are like who are like, I've never done an
Speaker 2: acting class, but it's acting saved my life. Like I
Speaker 2: don't have no judgment in any of that.
Speaker 1: And then when you watch movies, do you look at
Speaker 1: movies differently?
Speaker 2: I think that that someone that came with just like
Speaker 2: training and you know, being being an actor and then
Speaker 2: becoming a filmmaker like that. But I like at them
Speaker 2: differently and just in a really fun way. Like so
Speaker 2: I think I just like engage a little bit differently,
Speaker 2: Like I'm so curious about like like I had.
Speaker 1: In my head.
Speaker 2: There's like tiny, tiny moments of movies or TV shows
Speaker 2: that like sit there because I just think they're phenomenal. Okay,
Speaker 2: Like what there's this, Okay, there's this scene in this
Speaker 2: show Downton Abbey. There's a scene in the beginning of
Speaker 2: the show where one of the this guy is becoming
Speaker 2: a butler for this new guy, and the new guy
Speaker 2: is very like I don't like any of this, and
Speaker 2: they have this back and forth and he the new guy,
Speaker 2: says like something like to him like, I don't like,
Speaker 2: you know, something like what kind of what kind of
Speaker 2: man has a job where he has addressed another man
Speaker 2: for a living. And the reaction.
Speaker 1: That the butler has is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. I was like, that's just like he
Speaker 2: had because he's you can see he's he has he's
Speaker 2: holding all of this and he's also like like experiencing
Speaker 2: this moment of being oh like you know, demoralized. But
Speaker 2: he and it just all shows up in his face.
Speaker 2: It's such a beautiful, tiny moment and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Shout out to him. Yeah, a great acting job. Going
Speaker 1: back to your story, though, you complete the Conservative Tours,
Speaker 1: Conservative Conservatory, Conservatory yeah ship no no, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you complete it. Yes, you kill it within under two
Speaker 1: years as a year two years. Yeah, and then you
Speaker 1: come back to l A.
Speaker 2: No. I stayed in New York and then I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this, ah, and I just like auditioned
Speaker 2: for everything.
Speaker 1: But now you said you're you're well, I guess I
Speaker 1: don't know the timeline because your auntie you said, pastor
Speaker 1: in COVID. Yeah, so did she? So she there must
Speaker 1: have been a big gap between when you moved.
Speaker 2: There and yeah covid, yes, yes there was.
Speaker 1: Okay, So were you staying with her the whole time?
Speaker 2: No, I was with her for two years, and then
Speaker 2: at the point my apartment, my partner and I moved
Speaker 2: in together. And so that that's.
Speaker 1: You were like a New Yorker.
Speaker 2: No, not a New Yorker. But but he's in New
Speaker 2: Yorker at heart?
Speaker 1: Where is he from?
Speaker 2: A bit all over?
Speaker 1: But did you meet in New York?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so y'all move in?
Speaker 2: So you fell in love, fell in love, fell in
Speaker 2: love in New York.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you move in together. You complete it
Speaker 1: and both y'all are you're still not working a real job?
Speaker 2: No? So okay. So throughout the conservatory program, I worked
Speaker 2: as a waitress. I was a server.
Speaker 1: I think that's the hardest job in the world.
Speaker 2: It was so hard. I have so much respect. It
Speaker 2: was so hard.
Speaker 1: So fast food gets all the respects in my book.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, God, fast food jobs I can do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was. I was a cocktail waitress, and
Speaker 2: then I was also a server. I worked at like
Speaker 2: a hotel lobby, bar, I worked at another lobby bar
Speaker 2: I worked at STK Meatpacking, which was crazy. I worked
Speaker 2: all at the places all during all this, so I
Speaker 2: worked at all these different places. And then towards the
Speaker 2: end of my be finishing the conservatory program is when
Speaker 2: I went to babysitting. I used to babysit years before.
Speaker 2: I loved it. Though I loved it, I never had
Speaker 2: a bad day, you know. I just felt like I
Speaker 2: never had a day where it ended, and I thought
Speaker 2: it was horrible.
Speaker 1: Really with babysitting. How old were the kids?
Speaker 2: So my preference was like two and up. Okay, the
Speaker 2: family I was with the longest, they were four and
Speaker 2: I think seven when I started welcome and they were amazing. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, So that's what I did. I mean, not
Speaker 2: a lot of money because it's babysitting.
Speaker 1: But babysitters, by the way, make good money.
Speaker 2: No they do, they do? They do. I mean I
Speaker 2: was making I was making not terrible money. But it
Speaker 2: was also the beginning of that me read you know,
Speaker 2: starting that again. And so I wasn't making bad money,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't I wasn't full time, you know. And
Speaker 2: but there there are the jobs that are like great
Speaker 2: full time benefits and everything, but I wasn't full time.
Speaker 2: It was part time babysitter. And that's how that's how live.
Speaker 1: And then you're auditioning the whole time.
Speaker 2: Yes, and then auditioning the whole time booking like I
Speaker 2: was doing, like like off off off Broadway theater, like
Speaker 2: so like black Box Theater and that type of stuff,
Speaker 2: web series and you know, just the feilt short film,
Speaker 2: anything like that you could do, which I learned a
Speaker 2: lot of lessons in. Maybe not everything you can do
Speaker 2: you should or could do, but yeah, that's what I
Speaker 2: was doing.
Speaker 1: That was the most intriguing lesson you learned during that era.
Speaker 2: Hmmm. I think it was when you when you I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's intriguing, but when you finish, when
Speaker 2: you finish, school, conservatory, whatever.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of rhetoric of like, you know, audition
Speaker 2: for everything, hmm, and to some degree I agree with that,
Speaker 2: But I also found myself in situations that were not
Speaker 2: healthy and that were dangerous, and so I think maybe
Speaker 2: not audition for everything, auditioned maybe for most things, and
Speaker 2: you know, stantinto's down while you think that something's out
Speaker 2: on line and.
Speaker 1: Walk away what's an example of like a situation you
Speaker 1: put yourself into that was like unhealthy or not safe. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I had I had booked this play and I had
Speaker 2: gone to the first rehearsal, which was more of like
Speaker 2: just kind of read through type of like vibes, and
Speaker 2: I remember that the character I was going to play
Speaker 2: was in a very abusive relationship. And I had asked
Speaker 2: the director, Hey, so there's some physical violence that happens
Speaker 2: to the character in the play. Are we going to
Speaker 2: like fight choreo this, you know, and walk through this
Speaker 2: and da da da da. And the director was like, no, no,
Speaker 2: he's just gonna grab you and pull you across stage.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, sh that seems like a bad plan
Speaker 2: and really dangerous like physically and emotionally and mentally and everything.
Speaker 2: And that was a show. I was like went home
Speaker 2: and I was like I'm out, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: You know. I've also like shown up for an audition
Speaker 2: and audition in a hallway, which was shocking to me
Speaker 2: that I left my job early to audition in a hallway,
Speaker 2: So things like that could happen, you know. That's like
Speaker 2: these are real stories. So I think that there is
Speaker 2: some of like you kind of got to learn the
Speaker 2: ropes of like what's what and what is and like,
Speaker 2: you know, learn how to read like a breakdown, research
Speaker 2: the people, and then sometimes you do all that, but
Speaker 2: then you show up and you're like, m this seems
Speaker 2: not okay. You know, You're like, oh, I've had friends
Speaker 2: show up and the director hits on them and I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: that's not okay, it's not okay. So that's a we're
Speaker 2: walking away from this situation. Thank you, no, thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that's very hard to do.
Speaker 1: I was gonna get it. That's got to be really tough,
Speaker 1: very hard to do. You're like, this could be my
Speaker 1: first real break.
Speaker 2: And you just want to work. You just want to work,
Speaker 2: even if you know you want to work, you want
Speaker 2: to learn, you want to work, you want to practice.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so after.
Speaker 1: You work in a pustle and bustle of jobs, I
Speaker 1: want to get closer to you and your real big like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm quitting these jobs. You do quit the jobs?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're watching you on Netflix. So what's the
Speaker 1: big play that kind of like says I can do
Speaker 1: the thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think I was working for Okay,
Speaker 2: so we're fast forwarding. Like I was working for a
Speaker 2: nonprofit which I have a door and I've still work
Speaker 2: with them now. And that's when like things start moving, right,
Speaker 2: That's when you I'm like, oh gosh, I think the
Speaker 2: ship is like sailing okay, and and it really around
Speaker 2: booking Beauty and Black and so. But I didn't quit
Speaker 2: right away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I waited shout out to the nonprofit. It's made in.
Speaker 2: So I've worked with nating her Image. But the nonprofit
Speaker 2: is now known as Education Action and Alliance, and it's
Speaker 2: a nonprofit that focuses on supporting LGBT plus youth in
Speaker 2: the state of Arizona. And so that is who I
Speaker 2: was working with. Now I'm a board member on that nonprofit.
Speaker 2: It's just it's exciting. But yeah, so I like it
Speaker 2: was like a slow crawl to that and then and
Speaker 2: then booking Straw. I think was kind of the moment
Speaker 2: where it was like, okay, I think actually and it
Speaker 2: was a lot less about like two we know, it's
Speaker 2: a lot more about like I actually don't have the
Speaker 2: capacity to do all of these things at the level
Speaker 2: which they need to be done.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's really kind of what happened for me.
Speaker 2: Things came to a head in that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when you can you take me through Beauty
Speaker 1: and Black, like what the whole feelings vibes calls the
Speaker 1: whole big shebang behind that moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it was I just I fondly, fondly
Speaker 2: would deeply remember the audition because I just remember me really.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this scene is the scene is long,
Speaker 2: and I want to make sure that like it's it's
Speaker 2: active and interesting and keeps people watch, keeps the viewer
Speaker 2: watching and trying to like curate just like dynamic choices
Speaker 2: throughout the whole scene that keep changing and changing and changing.
Speaker 2: So that was really fun. But yeah, I mean I
Speaker 2: did that and then my my agents called and they
Speaker 2: were like, hey, like, so you booked this, And I
Speaker 2: was like, what.
Speaker 1: Does that mean?
Speaker 2: I think I'm a freezer. The show in Atlanta, okay,
Speaker 2: and you at the time in La.
Speaker 1: Oh it was in La.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was in La.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, I think I just froze a bit,
Speaker 2: like I think frozen like processing cause it's just.
Speaker 1: Especially you're still there.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, I think I Like I told I
Speaker 2: told my husband and he was very exciting, and I
Speaker 2: was just like because the pressure, you know, of wanting
Speaker 2: to just do a good job and that whole thing,
Speaker 2: and also just like dynamically like what does it mean
Speaker 2: and what is this mean for my career and all
Speaker 2: those other things. But then you had to call the
Speaker 2: job and be like, well, I kept my job throughout
Speaker 2: that whole.
Speaker 1: Thing, But did you did you tell them remote?
Speaker 2: What was I told them, Well, I was remote already,
Speaker 2: I worked remotely, and I just told them like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is what's happening in my schedule might be a
Speaker 2: little funky. I had an intern at the time I
Speaker 2: was doing I did communications, so it's still very like,
Speaker 2: you know, a home type thing and just like really
Speaker 2: like setting expectations and that sort of thing, and they
Speaker 2: knew and it was just so incredibly supported. I've just
Speaker 2: been very blessed to be supportive people that I've worked
Speaker 2: with or for.
Speaker 1: But that's also in testaments to your integrity, right because
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have been that way if you didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of integrity in your way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so, yeah, Yeah, So that was it
Speaker 2: was just shocking, you know, I was really you don't
Speaker 2: know what it's going to be, you know, and this
Speaker 2: is like this is like a funny little thing. But
Speaker 2: my mom, like years ago, years ago, my mom was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to write a letter to Tyler, Perry and Oprah. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to write this letter. And I was like, Mom,
Speaker 2: like you need to chill, like this is not how
Speaker 2: this business works. And She's like, I'm going to write
Speaker 2: a letter and I'm going to send them this let
Speaker 2: about you. And I was like, all right, I don't know,
Speaker 2: go forth, go forth, like do what you need to do?
Speaker 1: Did no?
Speaker 2: She did.
Speaker 1: They wrote the.
Speaker 2: Letter though her my like my aunt wrote the letter,
Speaker 2: but they never said it. And so like calling my
Speaker 2: mom to tell her that was hilarious.
Speaker 1: I love that. Ye, and that's met a part of
Speaker 1: manifestation right to some degree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that lady manifested. Give it to her,
Speaker 2: She'll give it to God.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna mail my Christmas list to her. So
Speaker 1: take me to Straw now.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Straw was like it was like I had
Speaker 2: just come off of Beauty and Black, which is really
Speaker 2: just just really invigorating experience.
Speaker 1: And just like what are the hours?
Speaker 2: By the way, long and short Oka mix back mixed
Speaker 2: back like eight to twelve hours. Yeah, sometimes I think
Speaker 2: it was it could be longer, but not not bad,
Speaker 2: not for me. But and then Straw was like a
Speaker 2: month afterwards.
Speaker 1: I got a call.
Speaker 2: From my agent was like, hey, you know, you're an
Speaker 2: audition for this and I was like, okay, great, and
Speaker 2: it was like it was it was something to do,
Speaker 2: I would say, the audition. So I called my one
Speaker 2: of my coaches and I was like, yo, like I
Speaker 2: need to I need some help one like how to
Speaker 2: how to throw myself into this headspace like like high
Speaker 2: energy and things like that, and so we kind of
Speaker 2: worked on that and then did the audition, and then
Speaker 2: and then again the same thing. Just got a call
Speaker 2: but it was so fast. It was so fast. And
Speaker 2: then I went to Atlanta and I thought I was
Speaker 2: going to be there for a while. I was not.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, we're doing this, Like okay, how
Speaker 2: long are you there for? For?
Speaker 1: How long did it take?
Speaker 2: I was there for I think two weeks maybe not
Speaker 2: very long at all, and a little bit yeah, a
Speaker 2: little bit. Yeah, it's I'm trying to think what I
Speaker 2: can't say.
Speaker 1: It's gonna drop June six, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's a story. It's a story about a
Speaker 2: how do I say this in a more meaningful way,
Speaker 2: It's really a story that's just reflective on how hard
Speaker 2: Black women are hit on a day to day basis,
Speaker 2: which is really difficult stuff, difficult situations in all avenues
Speaker 2: of their lives lives, and and what happens when that
Speaker 2: is magnified and really comes to a head. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's I would it's a bit sad in a way
Speaker 2: because it's a real reality. But that that is what
Speaker 2: it's about. It's about seeing how that how that can
Speaker 2: function at its worst and its highest, and how that
Speaker 2: functionality like affects black women. For me, like being a
Speaker 2: black woman living in New York City, you know, it's
Speaker 2: interesting like realizing that in a day that I could
Speaker 2: have like five interactions that were just like trash because
Speaker 2: I was because I am a black woman. So this,
Speaker 2: this this film really just like shines like a really
Speaker 2: good like light on that and really amplifies it in
Speaker 2: an extreme way because it is film and cinema, but
Speaker 2: a way that I think is really relevant and understandable
Speaker 2: and and a relatable.
Speaker 1: And and the in Taraji, she plays a single parent,
Speaker 1: right and then everyone else are they single parents? In No,
Speaker 1: you get to see everyone getting hit from all different You.
Speaker 2: Get to see the results of her being hit like that.
Speaker 2: You get to receive the results of what what the
Speaker 2: constant like it's you know, just like imagine somebody just
Speaker 2: being punched, punch punched, you know every.
Speaker 1: Day of my life.
Speaker 2: Guys, the ones with lotion, we don't want that dry ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, but no, but yeah, that's what it's.
Speaker 2: It's her being like, you know, hit in all these
Speaker 2: different in all these different areas of her life, all
Speaker 2: at the same time. And what that what that can do,
Speaker 2: like what that can do to a person, and where
Speaker 2: that can lead us?
Speaker 1: And this is a Netflix original right now, it's not
Speaker 1: is any relation to Tyler Perry.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1: Sounds like Tayler Perry written all over it.
Speaker 2: It's Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1: Did you get to work with him up close? And
Speaker 1: I did? I did. How was that experience? Oh?
Speaker 2: It's so great?
Speaker 1: Are you ever going to say anything bad about anybody?
Speaker 1: I'm joking. I'm joking, Ashley.
Speaker 2: I you know, I I think I've been very blessed,
Speaker 2: very Yeah, I think I've had very positive situations. I've
Speaker 2: heard lots of things from people about lots of people
Speaker 2: or whatever, but I don't know. I I think I've
Speaker 2: been really blessed, Like I feel very protected. I feel
Speaker 2: like I work when I need to be working. I
Speaker 2: feel like I've been forced into states of rest when
Speaker 2: I need to rest. And I I've had really good experiences,
Speaker 2: like I've I've looked up to Traji forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's very strong, forever.
Speaker 2: She's she's an incredible actress, like incredible.
Speaker 1: And then you get to work with, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the godfathers in the industry exactly.
Speaker 2: And so I think he came from theater too, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: right and so and I think like the two then
Speaker 2: they they're so playful, you know, they're very found. I
Speaker 2: found him to be very kind person. I think it
Speaker 2: was really nice to be on that set because a
Speaker 2: lot of I think what you get as an actor,
Speaker 2: like obviously, like you're always trying to get to set right,
Speaker 2: And I think it's so funny because we're trying to
Speaker 2: get somewhere that we've never been, Like I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to get there. I don't know if I like it
Speaker 2: when I get there, but I'm trying to get there
Speaker 2: and I and I end up being on this film
Speaker 2: and being on this set with two people who, like
Speaker 2: I said, are very playful. But so it's really interesting
Speaker 2: to watch like dynamic black people do this work. But
Speaker 2: they are they're living in it, you know, they're living
Speaker 2: in it. It's today, it is. It's so easy to
Speaker 2: feel so precious about the work. And I understand that
Speaker 2: because I have that, because there's so much anxiety about
Speaker 2: really wanting to give what you've got to give your best.
Speaker 2: But to watch her just be so seamless and to like,
Speaker 2: like just I looked at her and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: she's a person, and you know, not that she's not
Speaker 2: a person, right, but I'm like, no, no, I think
Speaker 2: she's like a normally normal size whatever that happen.
Speaker 1: You know sometimes you're in this industry. You see people there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like normal size. But just to see like
Speaker 2: her like living her life, like doing her job and
Speaker 2: then being freaking amazing. Like at one point, I swear
Speaker 2: we're shooting something and I was just like staring at
Speaker 2: her and I was like, girl, you gotta get back
Speaker 2: in the scene in the moment because I just was
Speaker 2: like it's just so in awe of her ability and
Speaker 2: her capacity, and it was really like it. I just
Speaker 2: felt like I walked away feeling like I can't wait
Speaker 2: for the for the point in my career and in
Speaker 2: my life as an artist when I when I when
Speaker 2: I can harness that.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: It was really nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you seen the then result of straw it?
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't. I don't know if what I
Speaker 2: saw is the end.
Speaker 1: But you do get a like sneak peek it I
Speaker 1: had a tiny peak. What are you excited?
Speaker 2: I'm very exciting.
Speaker 1: Was is it weird watching yourself?
Speaker 2: I hate watching myself?
Speaker 1: Do you critique yourself?
Speaker 2: I try not to. It's so hard, you know because
Speaker 2: like you know, as you have to, like in some dereay,
Speaker 2: we naturally do because you do an audition. You gotta
Speaker 2: watch the tape, wash the tape. Okay, that's the takee Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll send that one. You know, but you watch it tape.
Speaker 2: You know what happened my hair, you know, like all
Speaker 2: these things. So it's hard not to do that. But
Speaker 2: but maybe maybe a little bit. But I but I
Speaker 2: think in the end, I just in one sense success
Speaker 2: to me is like doing your best, and I did
Speaker 2: my best, So like I think I try to always
Speaker 2: like separate a little bit when I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is is my best on
Speaker 2: that day, in that moment.
Speaker 1: So now that you see a lot of success also
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, do you feel like there's a part of
Speaker 1: you that's gonna move over there?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, she said, no, firm, firm, keeping your feet
Speaker 1: in La.
Speaker 2: I you know, I don't know. I like to think
Speaker 2: of myself as a bit of a vagabond on the inside,
Speaker 2: so I like to I do like to move around.
Speaker 2: So every time I move somewhere, I don't really decorate
Speaker 2: because I think I'm.
Speaker 1: Leaving and your husband's with all of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're nice support, We're so together on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah we're the vagupond thing. Like I think we're two
Speaker 2: piece like in a pot on that. But no, I
Speaker 2: mean i'd love to I'd love to, you know, La
Speaker 2: is fine. I'd love to live somewhere else. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm very open. I'm very open, you know. I think
Speaker 2: I think that the pandemic also like showed me that that,
Speaker 2: like I could live anywhere for a period of time,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I live in South Carolina. There's
Speaker 2: just a strong choice. So my in laws lived there,
Speaker 2: my in law's lived there, and it was really nice
Speaker 2: to be with family during such a difficult time.
Speaker 1: But yeah, okay, all right, well everybody, you can keep
Speaker 1: up with Ashley? Where can I keep up with you?
Speaker 2: Go ahead? I'm like yeah, oh la, oh no, I'm
Speaker 2: just kidding. I'm I'm a little already only on Instagram?
Speaker 1: That is?
Speaker 2: That? Is it? So at Ashley versure with the v's.
Speaker 1: Sure that Ashley version no, no space, nothing, nothing, nothing else.
Speaker 1: And then tell us where we can watch Straw and
Speaker 1: all the updates on Straw.
Speaker 2: Yes, Straw on Netflix.
Speaker 1: It'd be great, It'll be great. It's a Tyler Perry production,
Speaker 1: it is, yes, And oh, by the way, last question,
Speaker 1: but how was his lot? Was it phenomenal?
Speaker 2: It's fire for real?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: I it is fire. I remember, it's huge. I was
Speaker 2: on one side one night and I was like, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna walk back and they're like, no, like
Speaker 2: you're you're You're way way away from where you think
Speaker 2: you are. It's huge.
Speaker 1: And did you get to tour it?
Speaker 2: I didn't tour, but I've been around a lot of it.
Speaker 2: I don't even know you could tour that. You could
Speaker 2: tour it though, you know, it's just pund My thoughts
Speaker 2: were like happy to be here possibly, so I was like,
Speaker 2: I need nothing with water maybe, but happy to be here. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's nice.
Speaker 1: I can see I can see you being like that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm just like, can I just have coffee
Speaker 2: and eggs?
Speaker 1: Yes? And they don't even have to be brown.
Speaker 2: I'll take the white. I'll take a hard boiled. That's
Speaker 2: what that was what I wanted.
Speaker 1: Wow, I did okay well, staying true to eggs. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time. Really appreciated your eggs.
Speaker 1: They were really good.
Speaker 2: It's too much.
Speaker 1: I think it was fine. It was like perfectly fluffy,
Speaker 1: like restaurant style. Thanks for tuning in, y'all. Peace out
Speaker 1: piece For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The
Speaker 1: Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.